We are so thankful we once again have an approved home study and it's on it's way to the USCIS to meet our Supplement 3 for the extension to avoid the 800a process again. We should have an an approval there by the end of next week and our documents will then go to be authenticated. This time we only have 3 instead of a whole bunch. After that we'll officially be DTC again. Most families travel ( with a 60 day LOA wait) to China in about 6 months or so. If we are DTC by the beginning of December we should be traveling around the beginning of the summer? Good timing with the kids getting out of school! We rest in God's perfect timing and rejoice that Wills is in a good place. Each day we are working towards more things here at home, everyone responding with more fruits of the spirit. Being as independent as we can all be, as helpful as we can be to each other and sleeping in our own beds, all.night.long. Bless it- I haven't met a college kiddo yet who sleeps with his momma so I know it's coming and when it does I know we'll miss it!! But knowing we have another big transition coming we are trying to get everyone as situated as we can. We do have some costs coming up with the DTC and we humbly ask for your help with those. Please donate if you can here through our youcaring page. We're so thankful you all are walking this journey with us again! God is able-
$140 due now for PA
$700 for the Dossier submission
$9.00 Shelby county courthouse
$15.00 Alabama Secretary of State
$75.00 My China Docs
$60.00 Courier Fee
$2900 another agency fee due at DTC
$720 when we receive our 800 approval after LOA
Another agency fee of $2900 due at LOA
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Give $10 recap and more!
Whew! I am so sorry this post is at least a week late and that we haven't been as great this time at updating the blog. Facebook is just so easy to do quickly from my phone. To further justify my lack of posting I'll say this is a busy time of year for us. We call it party season. Hartley's birthday, followed quickly by the Pumpkin party and then followed quickly by West's party then Thanksgiving and Christmas. We LOVE this season and LOVE having folks into our home but it does make life a little more busy then normal:)
We are so thankful for the opportunity to be on this journey again. When I grumble at the fundraising or the mounds of paperwork, I look at Molly! It's easy to lose your focus on why we adopt and looking at her brings it back to the "why"!! Especially this week after becoming friends on FB with a family who serves in Molly's orphanage it has reminded us even more. The very rooms our daughter lived in, the very walls where we stood, babies are dying, children need families. An 8 year old lays in a crib all day long with no stimulation. YES life is busy, YES adoption is costly, but Lord have mercy.. We can.not.just.sit.by. At least the Gotbeters can not. We've been wrecked for the Gospel and for orphans and once you have seen and you know you can not ever be the same again. And.. you don't want to-
We announced Wills 2 months and 1 week ago. At that time we hit the ground running, right off the bat with the good ole' Give $10 change a life. Raising $10K in 60 days, 1 $10 donation at a time. We had PA, and we were rocking and rolling on our home study update, praying to utilize something called the Supplement 3. Molly and I were flying all over the country and fall was well underway. Suddenly we hit some pretty scary road blocks and things were very stressful for a little while. Thankfully those things are mended now and the Lord prevailed. We were back on track! Thank you Jesus!! So many of you gave so selflessly of your time to share our post and also donated your hard earned money to bring Wills home. We also organized a garage sale at the last minute and are so thankful for your amazing donations and your shares on social media to help it be the success it was! With the Give $10 and the garage sale we made $8K of the $10K that we had hoped to make. Although it is short of what WE had hoped to make it was exactly what we needed to make our first two large payments and have just a little left over for some other fees coming our way. For that we are BEYOND thankful!!! It does mean though that we do need to start another fundraiser sooner then later because we have several more fees in larger amounts coming soon and since we were $2K short on the Give $10 we need to make up that money soon to pay for those larger fees. We know God is able and one thing that we have learned is that this is a different story then Molly's story and thus will be a different journey!
Truly it is. Just like every birth, every adoption is totally different. When we began we had no idea where the funds would come from with Molly. We didn't know about Lovegave or the other grants. We just walked in obedience trusting that the Lord would provide. HE.did. and HE.will... Some folks have ask me what does it mean if you don't make your fundraising goals? What do you think God is trying to say if you don't make the money you need to bring Wills home? Tommy and I stand on the calling and promises that the Lord has given us to adopt Wills. Just because a man-made goal that we set doesn't happen we won't focus on that. Instead we praise HIM for the $8K we did make. $8K in 60 days is significant. We can't apply for all the same grants again this time, and not everyone who gave last time can give this time. Molly attached so well so quickly and Wills may not. Molly speaks English fluently, he may have more trouble. Everything thus far is so different with his adoption so it only makes sense the fundraising would be different as well.
Where are we now? Our home study is finished and headed to Columbia to be approved there and then onto Immigration. Our supplement 3 is looking good ( a step to avoid the 800a again) and that deadline is November 9th. From there we will be DTC ( Dossier to China) again, then will wait to be LID ( Logged in), then LOA ( Letter of acceptance), then the 800 process, Travel approval and CA ( Consulate appointment) and we head out:) I'm excited for these next steps as the paperwork is less and the waits are unpredictable but predictable in the sense that we can't make them go any faster then they will. I'd say best case is late spring early summer to travel. As soon as we have a copy of our home study in hand I have several adoption grants for it to join, they'll be prayed over and mailed out. We are very hopeful we'll have a good response there again. I know one for sure we can't apply for but we are believing that God has already begun a good work and that this will be a fruitful avenue for us again. In addition we have;
Goats milk soaps coming soon.
A custom adoption Tshirt being made locally to sell online.
And also "A night of Hope" a family, friendly but more formal then our normal parties here, event planned here for Feburaryish. We have begun securing food donations and will have a silent auction. Please be thinking of ways that you could help? Do you have a connection with a food co that would donate? A craft or a trade you'd like to donate to the silent acuction? We'd like to make a significant amount this night and would like to have a really nice silent auction.
These things, along with grants, we pray will be bring us to the finish line and bring Wills home.
We covet your prayers and are so thankful for your donations!!! Even in between fundraising events you can donate anytime on the side here with our you caring link.
We continue to walk forward praising God for all he has done and continues to do to help us bring Wills home! God is able!!
We are so thankful for the opportunity to be on this journey again. When I grumble at the fundraising or the mounds of paperwork, I look at Molly! It's easy to lose your focus on why we adopt and looking at her brings it back to the "why"!! Especially this week after becoming friends on FB with a family who serves in Molly's orphanage it has reminded us even more. The very rooms our daughter lived in, the very walls where we stood, babies are dying, children need families. An 8 year old lays in a crib all day long with no stimulation. YES life is busy, YES adoption is costly, but Lord have mercy.. We can.not.just.sit.by. At least the Gotbeters can not. We've been wrecked for the Gospel and for orphans and once you have seen and you know you can not ever be the same again. And.. you don't want to-
We announced Wills 2 months and 1 week ago. At that time we hit the ground running, right off the bat with the good ole' Give $10 change a life. Raising $10K in 60 days, 1 $10 donation at a time. We had PA, and we were rocking and rolling on our home study update, praying to utilize something called the Supplement 3. Molly and I were flying all over the country and fall was well underway. Suddenly we hit some pretty scary road blocks and things were very stressful for a little while. Thankfully those things are mended now and the Lord prevailed. We were back on track! Thank you Jesus!! So many of you gave so selflessly of your time to share our post and also donated your hard earned money to bring Wills home. We also organized a garage sale at the last minute and are so thankful for your amazing donations and your shares on social media to help it be the success it was! With the Give $10 and the garage sale we made $8K of the $10K that we had hoped to make. Although it is short of what WE had hoped to make it was exactly what we needed to make our first two large payments and have just a little left over for some other fees coming our way. For that we are BEYOND thankful!!! It does mean though that we do need to start another fundraiser sooner then later because we have several more fees in larger amounts coming soon and since we were $2K short on the Give $10 we need to make up that money soon to pay for those larger fees. We know God is able and one thing that we have learned is that this is a different story then Molly's story and thus will be a different journey!
Truly it is. Just like every birth, every adoption is totally different. When we began we had no idea where the funds would come from with Molly. We didn't know about Lovegave or the other grants. We just walked in obedience trusting that the Lord would provide. HE.did. and HE.will... Some folks have ask me what does it mean if you don't make your fundraising goals? What do you think God is trying to say if you don't make the money you need to bring Wills home? Tommy and I stand on the calling and promises that the Lord has given us to adopt Wills. Just because a man-made goal that we set doesn't happen we won't focus on that. Instead we praise HIM for the $8K we did make. $8K in 60 days is significant. We can't apply for all the same grants again this time, and not everyone who gave last time can give this time. Molly attached so well so quickly and Wills may not. Molly speaks English fluently, he may have more trouble. Everything thus far is so different with his adoption so it only makes sense the fundraising would be different as well.
Where are we now? Our home study is finished and headed to Columbia to be approved there and then onto Immigration. Our supplement 3 is looking good ( a step to avoid the 800a again) and that deadline is November 9th. From there we will be DTC ( Dossier to China) again, then will wait to be LID ( Logged in), then LOA ( Letter of acceptance), then the 800 process, Travel approval and CA ( Consulate appointment) and we head out:) I'm excited for these next steps as the paperwork is less and the waits are unpredictable but predictable in the sense that we can't make them go any faster then they will. I'd say best case is late spring early summer to travel. As soon as we have a copy of our home study in hand I have several adoption grants for it to join, they'll be prayed over and mailed out. We are very hopeful we'll have a good response there again. I know one for sure we can't apply for but we are believing that God has already begun a good work and that this will be a fruitful avenue for us again. In addition we have;
Goats milk soaps coming soon.
A custom adoption Tshirt being made locally to sell online.
And also "A night of Hope" a family, friendly but more formal then our normal parties here, event planned here for Feburaryish. We have begun securing food donations and will have a silent auction. Please be thinking of ways that you could help? Do you have a connection with a food co that would donate? A craft or a trade you'd like to donate to the silent acuction? We'd like to make a significant amount this night and would like to have a really nice silent auction.
These things, along with grants, we pray will be bring us to the finish line and bring Wills home.
We covet your prayers and are so thankful for your donations!!! Even in between fundraising events you can donate anytime on the side here with our you caring link.
We continue to walk forward praising God for all he has done and continues to do to help us bring Wills home! God is able!!
Friday, September 26, 2014
IPAD mini give away!
Hi friends! With 3 weeks to go in our challenge we decided to do a GIVE AWAY. We have raised $5K and now need to do that in 3 weeks. I know that sounds overwhelming but we know God is more then able. We do need you though, would you share and share and share again? For every $25 given your name is entered to win the IPAD MINI, just in time for the Holidays! This will be our biggest fundraiser of the whole adoption, we do have a few others that will be going on but none as big as this one. Each dollar you donate matters so much. No matter how small.. We're so thankful to have you all along for the ride as we walk towards bringing Wills home.
God is able!
God is able!
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
HALF WAY MARK!!
Amazing grace how sweet the sound, I once was lost but now am found! Rejoicing today that WIlls is ONE LESS and we are half way through our Give $10 Fundraiser! Let's finish strong team! 30 days to go and $6,678.00. We need you! Have you given? Would you give again? Would you give more then $10 to help us reach our goal? It's a big goal but we serve a bigger God. He funds what he favors and today we are claiming favor over the process, the fundraiser and sweet little Wills. Found.. Thanking you advance for your help today! God is able! http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/a-home-for-wills/227533
Friday, September 12, 2014
WIN a fall banner!
Donate $25 or more today and you will be entered to win a custom fall banner! These look darling on your mantle! Just hit the donate button here on the blog! We're working on the 3rd payment now. $2900!
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Making a run for it!
We've sorted out how we can save some time and a little bit of money with our re use adoption here for Wills. We need to raise about $370.00 more to make the total $2900.00 for the second agency payment. Then we need to immediately raise the $2900.00 again and FAST! As soon as we can we need to complete our homestudy ( waiting on some marriage test results and have to have our final interview) asap and get it sent off to Columbia. ( a state wide thing they do here) Our finger prints expire 9/26 and so we need to have our request for an extension at the lock box for Immigration by then. 14 days after that we will get a RFE, meaning that they will want to see our new updated homestudy. We then will have 33 days to get it to them. That's where the prayers come in and why fundraising is so crucial right now. The agency wont release our homestudy to go until we have that third payment made. Meaning it wont go to Columbia and wont get to Immigration within the time frame. Prolonging the adoption and making it more $$. We must move forward, we must share the Give $10 frequently and we must give. And we may have to give again... Although the Give $10 is challenging what it does do is allow us to have these funds on hand so that we don't have to scramble like this to get things sorted. We're so thankful for your help and claiming that our God is more then able to work out all the paper work and fundraising once again. Please lock arms with us, claim God is more then able and let's GO!
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Update on Give $10
Friends we are off to a GREAT start! Together we have raised $2,292.00 through this site and paypal before we created this! We have $7,708.00 left and 41 days to do it! We just paid out a payment of $1900.00 and we have another $1900 due at the end of September and then another $2900 shortly there after. Moving forward claiming our God is more then able! Thank you all for your donations and sharing!
We are $881.00 short for where we would need to be to finish on day 60 with $10,000.00. Would you give today? Would you share our story asking your friends? We're so thankful for your help!
We are $881.00 short for where we would need to be to finish on day 60 with $10,000.00. Would you give today? Would you share our story asking your friends? We're so thankful for your help!
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